Diagnostic laboratories are becoming increasingly automated and as a result have a higher throughput for clinical analysis of laboratory samples. In order to take advantage of the increased testing speed and higher throughput, more efficient pre-diagnostic procedures are necessary to ensure large numbers of samples are prepared and available for testing.
Laboratory samples are typically stored and handled in standard sample containers, such as test tubes that may be stored in a standard test tube rack. These samples often need to be mixed and agitated prior to testing. Mixing may be required due to the settling of the samples that often occurs during storage, for incorporation of reagents prior to a reaction, for homogenization, for instigating a reaction, of for instigation precipitation or other physical and chemical changes required for laboratory sample analysis. The agitation must be performed while ensuring that the samples remained sealed. Prior agitating methods and devices have inefficiencies that may hinder the overall throughput of the laboratory.
The most commonly used method of agitation is vortexing, wherein the sample container is rapidly swirled. Vortexing is not optimal for most laboratory sample containers that have an extended height dimension. In order for vortexing to completely mix the sample, the vortex or opening void in the swirling liquid must extend from the top portion to the bottom portion of the extended height dimension of the sample container, which is a time consuming, inefficient process. Complete inversion of the sample provides a more efficient method of fulling agitating a sample.
Current inversion methods for laboratory samples, however, are also inefficient for high throughput laboratories. For example, individual samples contained in test tubes may be inverted by hand to provide the necessary agitation of the samples. Although inversion by hand quickly agitates the sample, the process is necessarily limited to one or two samples at a time and requires an employee dedicated to handling and inverting the individual samples which is time consuming and less efficient than automated processes.
Some systems provide automated agitation for a number of samples in a single process. For example, conventional rocker systems have provided the ability to agitate a larger number of samples at a single time through an automated process. Conventional rockers currently available, however, merely oscillate the samples and do not provide inversion, which results in a longer period of time required to completely agitate the samples. The process time for conventional rockers is typically between four and ten minutes to provide the necessary agitation of the samples prior to testing. Conventional rockers further require the samples to be moved from the racks on which they are stored to the rocker device which requires additional time and labor.
Commercial test tube rotators are available that provide full inversion of the samples. These rotators, however, are limited in the number of test tubes they are able to hold and, similar to the rockers described above, require that the individual tubes be moved from the racks on which they are held to the rotator prior to inversion. Thus, available sample rotators require additional time and effort that limits the overall throughput of the testing laboratory.
There is thus a need in the art to overcome these and other deficiencies.